This is now

16/04

• Have awoken feeling very, very wobbly - just in time for my Easter break … actually got up and sneezed four times :o head feels stuffy too :( oh well, be an excuse to laze about in bed for a few days :p hmm, seem to be loving the emoticons … Also want to get some clothing finalised, cleaning out the closet(s), and trying to eat some different things, e.g. try some of the seafood shops out of town - apparently there is one on the outskirts of Portarlington too. Oh, and will be doing some riding, of course - might even work out what to do with that seat? Although, could be a radical step to get another one …
• How coincidental is that Brother wants to invest $30000 in whisky, with a 9% compounding return, and Mother offers $50000 as a contribution for the mortgage? Not that I am paranoid, but … Sister apparently told her that she wanted to have no conditions attached to it, so I suggested putting it into a term deposit until she is able to utilise it. Which may work? What an odd family, hey? Not sure if it is a good thing - reminds me of that tale in the Bible about the receipt of gold coins … I wonder where it is coming from?
• Anyway, we shall see, we shall see …
• Been quite a bit of rain lately, so (no doubt) my tank will be full … odd though it may sound, this may be the incentive to get another tank, for that way I will always have enough as spare/surplus, which will free me up to use it more, i.e. I still have not yet fired the pump up. Maybe that is something else I could do over the next few days? As for the garden, because of the rain, there has been both an explosion of lawn growing, and a distinct lack of mowing, so it is looking a tad scraggly out there! Have been accumulating cardboard boxes and newspapers in anticipation of building the 3rd garden bed, so that is another thing to be done. Also cleaned up the 1st bed, so will lay out some manures, etc. to bed down, give it a rest. Once this other bed is in place, I should be right to run a four bed system, with one resting at any given time … With the incredible amount of newspaper and cardboard I have been collecting (accumulating), there will be plenty remaining to spruce up the other parts of the garden … which reminds me that I had best prepare the front bed for the roses for when they arrive, get some sheep manure mixed in, maybe through some green manure crops over the top? Hmm, bit of work to be done around the house, in the garden … There is also a few spots where I will need to get cracking to clear up, e.g. the panel boards surrounding the external room, for as Winter creeps in, the more sealed the house is, the better it will be to enjoy.
• My aim is also to do some basic investing and/or usage of ‘excess’ funds: superannuation, solar, teeth, shares - both to lift holdings and to increase spread of holdings. Then there is also consideration of other options, e.g. Public Trustee (Victoria), credit card (which might be a ‘good’ idea), spending on/in the house … so many options, hey? I think that leaving a buffer and then adhering to my ‘budget’ is going to be a much, much more sensible idea … must remember to leave enough to re-charge the Myki card too … could be a bit embarrassing if I was unable to ‘afford' to go back to work … It seems hard to make these investment decisions in isolation, so it may be beneficial to read up those books I have to get some perspective in which to consider what is ‘best’? Especially as I am an inherently ‘lazy’ investor …
• Woke up on Tuesday morning to find that my watch had stopped at 2312 whilst I was asleep … seems a bit pointless, but I am still wearing the watch, even though it has stopped :o another thing to be done tomorrow is find somewhere respectable to get the battery replaced. The place where I have been before, which was up some stairs above that ‘geek’ shop I do not think is still there, so I will have to find somewhere all over again :( In some ways, I am SO conservative - hard to make changes for the sake of change … despite what I often say on job applications and/or in interviews :p

…..

Well, the day is over - let the fun begin!

Really (really) annoys me the number of people that sit in the aisle seats, or, if they do move over to the window seat, they then put all their junk on the aisle seat! Having said that, I AM sitting in the aisle seat of a four seater - but that also means that there is adequate room to manoeuvre around me … and, with my nose dripping like this, I am of good mind to put this away, put some tunes on, and just vague out for one hour … especially as I do not have much news :o

That was then

11/04

There maybe something to be said for staying busy:

• Contract essay due a week earlier than expected. Having planned to spend the w/e doing a bit of reading around the two subject areas, getting a feel for the particularities to be considered, and sending out emails to a few people offering preliminary thoughts, I then discovered it was due on 08/04 :o Given that I was also going to spend the w/e doing other things, like writing an application for a NDIS position and/or cleaning up, you might say that I did not get a lot of other things done! Mind you, on Saturday night I thought to get out, take Zeffa for a walk, clear the head, letting the thoughts come to an equilibrium. So stopped at Beav’s for a stout, where I also reclined into my favourite couch, did a bit of net surfing, and found some decent quotes from B. Then off to Union St for a glass of Sangiovese, which even came with complimentary bits of cork! An interesting little place - the sort of place it would be good to sit down at and pontificate for awhile? They had a lot of wines (as you would expect), and seemed to serve variations on tapas, or at least, easy to eat bar nibbles with a twist. For what ever reason I called into E&C for a glass of beer, which was kind of interesting, due to the happy little atmosphere of the place :) There were a lot of happy people there, but I was too inebriated to do much more than goggle about, like a fish out of water. Anyway, although it left me quite drained, it did have the advantage of calming the jitters - ended up citing, with varying depth, about 20 cases … later I looked at some of the other essays, and they did not use such a depth, but argued the points better. The lessons from this is that I am going to need to be able to discuss the law better, and then provide supporting cases, I think - reminds me in someway of Gibson’s ‘consensual hallucination’ the way(s) that ‘we’ all agree on specifics. Anyway, went to bed on Sunday thinking to let it percolate, and spent the train ride on Monday reading the textbook, got home Monday night and played with a few things, but pretty much left it the same. Also had to submit the EOI for the APS4 position, so in light of my decision to actually do things, I drafted up an application for submission. I think. Actually, see the previous posting. Slept on it, then got up Tuesday, could not think of much else to change, so submitted it … then saw some of the other essays, which made me reconsider my approaches;
• Vicki turns out to be a bloke. On Thursday, I get a text saying that my ad (on the DUSA site) had elicited a response, and that they were keen to move in soonest. So I said come by, when is good? Turned out that soonest was literal! Anyway, turns out to be a fellow and his mate, who wanted a fully furnished room, high speed broadband, common rooms, and the $100/week was to cover all bills as well … His mate was a bit OTT, whereas I was trying to open grounds for negotiation/compromise - after all, I have always felt that we can talk about these things :) On the one hand, it would be good: he would be quiet, he is studying a MIT, could be a reasonable aspect for a mid term lodger, and he seemed to be nice, but … ‘he’ not ’she’, what is source of money? significant initial capital investment, and how would it be recovered? seemed to lack interaction skills - thought I was shy! Still, on the train back, especially when I thought it was a ’she’ I did expend quite a bit of thought trying out various scenarios, as the enthusiasm was a tad disconcerting (turns out that the more established options are already taken), as well as having to actually live with somebody. Anyway, got home and spent a bit of time cleaning up, which at least means that the place looks a bit better now! Oh, I do not know … what to do, what to do???;
• Interview for APS4. It was part of the getting on & doing things … Anyway, it did result in an interview. Which resulted in being selected for the pool :) The interview was with Kala and Leanne, with Sub sitting there as the scribe, but more as the ’truth’ post IMHO. Questions were: what skills/experience? We work in a scheduled environment. How do you deal with flexibility? and, How did you respond to an identified learning developmental need? The interview itself was reasonably short - it had been allotted 30 minutes, but it lasted only 20 minutes. I guess the remainder was for the collation of notes, etc.? Hoang was (and continues to be) quite odd about the whole process! Provided some guidance to align what she had initially wrote, to emphasise the ‘doing’ by providing examples of work completed - emphasise that have done work (of a similar ilk) and can do the same here. Took onboard what Ramirez said re use of 2 examples, indicate policy skills, and discussion of strategic vision (or at least an awareness of the strategic direction, and how I contribute to that). Since then Hoang has been on tenter hooks, so was quite elated with her selection … must remember to be more encouraging, make more reference to it in conversation … still have a lot of difficulty with contextual remembrances, I think. Ramirez was leaving Friday night, stopped by for some trivial miss mash, then got to the meat - “so, how did you do?” to which I replied that his report made all the difference … ah, the look on his face;) It is unfortunate that I find it hard to dissemble from direct questions (Have you seen it?”), to have left him with an implication, but, I guess, it makes me a ‘better’ person? yeah, it is funny … and it will be funnier to see what eventuates;
• Cooking with Jamie MoF. The ‘dreaded’ moment arrived - and wouldn’t you know it, but the one time I can NOT afford to be late on a call, this is the one time that a caller wants to chat! I am a farmer; was going to pay, but waiting for fruit to dry, etc. etc. So (fortunately) I handed off to Deb to take the call, and scooted - a tad late, but I DID run to the station :o to find that the train was waiting for a driver, and so did not leave for another 5 minutes … then there was some congestion getting through the outskirts of Melbourne … but I was still the first one to be at class :o and Felix was really, really close to the point of exclusion. Not that I could convey that too well. I think he has come back from Adelaide on the manic upswing - smoking, wanted to go riding :o and go visit Alley Cats. Oh well, therein lies the rub, I suppose? Anyway, first thing they do is get everyone to wash hands, put on an apron, listen to the OH&S briefing. Couple of cheeky birds there, who were then joined by their husbands, one of which was Ross Parkes. Seems an oddly shy person - spent a lot of time watching his body language and listening to conversation? Must be hard to be a man around town, ‘instantly’ recognisable (although, to be far, I did not recognise him for awhile), and then try to relax in public? But he seems a good ‘egg’ … which is what we cooked :) The pattern seems to be that we are shown what to do, how to do it, and then we get to have a go ourselves. So, we boiled (add to boiled water - 5 minutes for soft boiled, 7 minutes for medium, and 10 minutes for hard boiled), poached (gentle simmer, add to water gently, one at a time), and omelette (gentle heat, fold into middle as you go, add ingredients, then fold in half to rest). Following class was a massive clean up operation, but it seemed quite confused, e.g. sweeping prior to finishing the cleaning of the benches. Also thought it a bit odd that we cleaned down the stovetop, and had only used it o boil water … Each week seems to be about learning new skills, then applying them by undertaking a recipe - next week is to be carne and guacamole. Yum! Best remember to take my storage containers; and,
• Contribution to send G to Brisbane. In the spirit of not having to go myself :p I slipped G $200 to assist with costs - should I have asked for a receipt, or confirmation that was already expended? Maybe I am too trusting? Anyway, in some ways, I probably would have spent that anyway, as he had invited himself to come by for the weekend … am still not entirely comfortable with him, after what he expressed, and the way that he behaved, when he came to visit, and I took him over whilst I was doing Wendy’s ceiling - what a one sided deal that was!!! Anyway, be that as it may, I get that this is his version of trying to beat up on me, which he fails to do physically, but I really would rather that he not do such things! Maybe that is why I no longer communicate with ‘people’ - perhaps not accepting it in other people means that it is not accepted by me? Or maybe it is also all about that I am not who I was ...

there is that about it ...

04/04/14

pt a

A day at work, survived, struggled at times? EOI is in, it is all practice :)

Keep on moving, find the balance? Lost it with ‘Sylvia’ but no reason to grant another pointless p/a; ‘Michael’ did not believe my reference to s 51 (ii) of Constitution re legislative powers of Parliament to create taxation bills. Highs/lows. Great skills being learned here, just need to articulate into ‘something’ else … was fun talking to Michael - not that I ‘won’ but that I was able to offer a reasoned argument with evidence in support of my contention. Did not even bother to argue about debt recovery powers :p Anyway, I think he has had a ‘win’ in that he will be able to true to seek to have GST/ITW/SGE debt waived … happiness comes in many forms. In other news, it is getting cold again; AEDT changes for 07/14; and, it is the w/e :)

pt b

Random, solipsistic tardiness … the w/e after was an introduction to statutory law interpretation, that closely followed the text. But you had to be there, even if only for the social interaction … worringly, people came up and spoke with me, mentioning things that I could not recall - sometimes the context of conversations is so necessary :(

Had decided to start afresh, not drink any more beer from 31/03. Which kind of worked alright. Except I drank a bottle of wine instead, got depressed, and went to buy beer anyway! maybe I shall need to just ameliorate these experiences in trying to take care of myself? Has worked before with narcotics, so may be that I need to focus on what that key message or pivot is?

There is, of course, a routine for addressing these things, something that needs to be followed. Finding that something is the challenge …

More jobs to apply for - all very well saying that if you are going to do something, do it well … but sometimes you just need to do that something - an essay by the submission date, for instance, or an application by the time required. Little things like that … which reminds me - see what I mean? - that the mobility application is still not finalised :o

Fridays seem so insane on this train, more so than other days, anyway! Less people, less standing. Yet still there are some of the latter. Strange, that.

Oh, and apparently Sue Conrad is dead. Taped up the bathroom doors, filled the bath with coals, burnt out the oxygen. Could have been embarrassing waking up from that.

Geelong-Otway Challenge. Not

24/03/14
Well, that hurt!

Mind you, after disparaging the efforts of Felix on Saturday, he then tells me on Sunday that he actually did NOT get into the sag wagon, but rode all the way back to Torquay, doing 190km all up - bit better than my paltry 187km … In terms of statistics, 187.5km total distance; 8h 07’ 21” ride time; 23.1kph average speed; 4284 calories; and, a 1312m climb. According to the Garmin report, there were two records broken - distance ridden and the amount of climbing involved :)

Funnily enough, the Monday preceding (17/03) had dropped in to visit Felix, to go and celebrate St Patrick’s Day, and his jersey had arrived - he was so excited! Was adamant that he would now do the ride, even though the preceding six (6) weeks he had been out on the bike maybe twice? All I could do was encourage him to go out and spin in the remaining days … On Saturday morning, I picked him up at 0600, and we rode to Torquay. Quite a few people there, with a lot of effort to rouse people up, get them involved, start the vibe moving. I think that starting with the Orange crew (25kph) was best, as we started well, and just drifted back slightly. Quite a bit of a struggle riding along - told Felix that I was happy to ride in front, but he needed to communicate with me. Where have I heard that before? Anyway, after Moriac we got onto a few trains - got to 35kph with one! Got into Deans Marsh, and he is complaining about the pain, etc. so I advised him to take it slowly, and I would see him on the other side - there being a bit of ‘debate’ about where to wait for him … This was a timed climb, so I reset my shoes, and started climbing. Soon passed him, and kept powering away, then realised that the odometer had clicked over into triple figures, so pulled over to give him some encouragement … waited for while (10mins?), then realised that it was a timed climb, so jumped back on the bike and rode to the top, where I thought I would wait for him … only to get a text saying that he had turned back down the mountain. So I replied, and advised him to take the sag wagon, which he acknowledged as a good idea. Hence why I was a little unsympathetic about his ‘pains’ when I saw him in Torquay, thinking that he had spent three hours sitting around waiting for me … As an indication of the effort(s) involved, it was 48min up the hill, and 16min down … The rest of the ride was assisted quite a bit by a Southerly breeze, and I think that having made it over the hill helped to set my own mind at ease. Having the HR belt working again, I was able to ride a lot more ‘scientifically’ too. Felt that the climb out of Anglesea would be quite challenging, and it was, but I stopped at the bottom to re-fuel, which helped. Having planned it in my head, I was able to ride quite conservatively up it.

One thing about this ride, there was plenty of food + water - probably a stop every 25km, with water and bananas at all, plus other things (fruit, lollies, cakes, etc.) at many of them. The only thing I really missed out on was the Hammer nutrition gel at Deans Marsh - neither hide nor hair ...

Interestingly, the next day was not too bad, although I did not sleep that well, until after lunch. Went to meet Greg (and Brother John and Zeltko), waved goodbye to him, went to get some groceries + bread - the joys of cargo loading, and having no bread/carbohydrates (well, not much) during the preceding week! Then toddled up to wave goodbye to the GTC riders (Simon, Dave, Pam, Maree, Steve, etc.), before heading home to work on essay, then went to meet Simon/Dave for coffee. It was after that my legs began to hurt … had rubbed some Tiger Balm in the night before, not that it seemed to do much - in fact, I think it is more of a massage cream than a penetrative aid?

In the afternoon, I texted Felix to go visit Bruce, who it turns out to have cancer in the oesophagus. Kate is a mess, Bruce has lost 15kg, but they remain brave and resolute, so we shall see what eventuates … Then went with Felix to have Thai for dinner, which was not too bad. However, I awoke again at 0130, and just could not get back to sleep! So eventually I got up and did some more work on the essay, then sent off a draft to Burrows, before eventually drifting off again for another 30 minute doze. Was so shattered that I took the day off, and basically slept through until 1530, I think? Did also play some more of NeverWinter Nights too - bit of a struggle getting it to work, so will be interesting to see what the ongoing progress is like ...